CLARK Freeport Zone, Philippines — The whole of the Philippine lawn bowls team abandoned training six weeks ago to help put up their playing venue in the 30th Southeast Asian Games here.
The sacrifice was worth a gold, three silvers and two bronze medals.
“We put the gravel, cut the old grasses and planted the new grasses ourselves because we really want to compete in the SEA Games,” said Ainie Knights, whose team-up with Asuncion Bruce and Nancy Toyco produced a silver in women’s triples yesterday.
The venue, a patch of land located just beside Clark Development Corp.’s Freedom Gate, was actually the third and final option for the Philippine Lawn Bowls Association.
The group was forced to give up the first one at the Clark Global City grounds because it was not of international standard while the other, a golf course, was charging exorbitantly.
Without a venue, the Nationals were faced with the specter of the sport being scrapped from the biennial meet.
But the team persevered.
“If not for the CDC and the whole of the national team’s persistence and determination, we wouldn’t have lawn bowls in the SEA Games,” said a teary-eyed competition manager Jonalyn Greenless, who is also part of the national squad.
The Filipinos capped their performance in the sport with a silver in women’s triples and a bronze in the men’s fours courtesy of Curte Robert Guerin, Emmanuel Portacio, Leoncio Carreon and Ronald Lising to match the country’s 1-3-2 haul in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
But the victory was won one gloomy day in October when all the members of the team decided to take matters into their own hands.